Giovanni da Verrazzano

Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) was a Florentine Italian explorer in the service of France who became the first European explorer to reach the United States East Coast north of Florida, exploring New York Bay and Narragansett Bay.

Biography
Giovanni da Verrazzano was born in Val di Greve, Republic of Florence in 1485, and he settled in the French port of Dieppe in 1506 and became a navigator. In 1508, he launched his first trans-Atlantic voyage, reaching Newfoundland on a fishing trip. In 1523, worried about Spain's advantage in the colonization competition, King Francis I of France hired Verrazzano to launch a voyage to the region between Florida and Newfoundland. On 17 January 1524, Verrazzano set sail aboard La Dauphine, reaching Cape Fear on 1 March, and he later reached New York Bay and encountered the Lenape Native Americans. He claimed that he had found a large lake, but it turned out to be the Hudson River, explored by Henry Hudson in 1609. He later sailed along Long Island and in Narragansett Bay, receiving delegations of the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples. In 1529, he discovered Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and he then followed the coast up through Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and he returned to France on 8 July 1524. In 1527, he launched another voyage which reached Brazil and harvested a large quantity of Brazilwood, and, in 1528, he launched his final voyage to the Americas. After exploring Florida, the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles, he rowed ashore to Guadeloupe, where he was killed and eaten by the native Caribs; his crew were anchored offshore and too far away to help the explorer.